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The Galactic Senate Special Operations Corps
Moderators - User:SupcommMonroee, User:Krayfish, Users - User:Nra 'Vadumee, User:Panthean Characters Tholker Zhevhyit (Eteno) It was a normal, daily briefing on the current situation on Getrik. Grox resistance, more resistance, it was all the same at CXVII Corp headquarters. Suddenly, three soldiers loudly entered the room, rousing Captain Zhevhyit from his extreme state of boredom. "Captain Zhevhyit! By order of the Department of Miscellaneous Frontline Supplies under Brigadier General Sykes, you are ordered immediately to the Galactic Senate for special assignment!" The lead one yelled. "Sir, yes sir!" Tholker replied. The three Eteno nodded, and Tholker walked out of the room with them. He leaned in close to the lead one, and whispered. "Sir, you do know that I'm a supersoldier, correct?" "Why do you think you got this assignment directly from General Sykes? 'Course we know what you are!" "Alright sir. Will I be taking a shuttle, or am I going alone?" "Yer own private transport. First class, Captain. I envy ya', but this must be a ****ed important assignment if you're gettin' all that luxury! You'll be meeting up with some liasion when you land, that's all I know." -- The ride was only a few hours, and Zhevhyit tried to distance himself from the luxuries offered to him. Luxury makes a man weak. That's what his pop always told him. The supersoldier walked off the boarding ramp of his transport to meet a Dhragolon on the landing pad beside the senate hall. "Ah, you must be Captain Tholker Zhevhyit. Linguistics expert, and airborne insertion specialist?" The aide spoke to him. "That would be me. What's the assignment?" "I apologize, but I do not know. I have been instructed to lead you to the bunker where the team will be assembling." "Lead the way, then." Ahrganot Skiszgo (Dhragolon) Ahrganot lay in sleep, yet restlessly, aboard the flagship Garmatox, owned by Grandmaster Zerif. He began to see blurry images. It was a reoccuring nightmare he had been having for about 80 years. Three grotesque figures were battling against a phantom. The phantom would get the upper hand of the battle. The figures begged for assistance calling out to him, "Find us!" "Churszath Master Ahrganot Skizgo, please report to the bridge." Skizgo had woken up disoriented. Trying to get back in focus, Skizgo headed off to see what his Grandmaster wanted. After arriving, Skizgo quickly raised his right arm to his left shoulder, saluting his superior. "Master Ahrganot Skizgo reporting for duty. What is it that you wish to ask of me, sir?" Zerif replied, "At ease, Master. I have a special assignment for you. The Galactic Senate is in need of the most elite soldiers of the galaxy to take on some dangerous tasks. As you have demonstrated in your past experiences, I believe you are most qualified for these assignments." "What are these assignments you speak of?" "I do not know myself, but when you get there, you will find out. All I was told is that these missions are for the best of the best and no ordinairy Churszath or Alda'kapura would be eligible." "If you think I'm qualified, sir, I will gladly go on these difficult missions." "Very well. There's a shuttle escort in the hangar waiting for you. May Kray be with you." -- The Garmatox was rather close to where Skiszgo was headed to so the trip was not terribly long. Not long after arriving, he was escorted to a place simply known as the Bunker. Skizgo had continued to ponder about his nightmare. Even though he sought a greater truth, he told others that he would never return to Ucharpli. Nonetheless, he focused on the task at hand: settling into the bunker. Etah Owar (Karnasaurs) Colonel Etah was having another one of those days. After living for 4,999 years, he had seen everyone he loved wither and die, practically before his very eyes. He was tired of life, the only highs out of him were during combat and diplomacy. He had been all around the glaxy, seeing cradles of civilization, Karnas, Heglarea, Hunre, dozens of other homeworlds and thier colonies. He had seen stars enter the main sequence, he had seen a Galactic War start and end, he served on the Senate for a few years, even. He recentally began attempting suicide, knowing none of it would work. To make matters worse, it was his birthday. The average Karnasaur was lucky to see year 1,050. Yet here he was, alive and kicking, 5,000 years after the day of his hatching. Ever since the Galactic War ended, he regretted volunteering for the ELICAN program. ELICANS never die, they would say, and yet, here he is, Last of The Ten. 9 ELICANS were listed as KIA. 3 actually are. Four of them are trapped in Spode knows where after sabotaging a Hunre Crown prototype wormhole drive. They accidentally damaged it in a short firefight, and it set off, opening its exit wormhole at a set of random coordinates. Two faked thier own deaths to escape tot he Galactic Fringes, to live thier eternal lives together (yes, they were opposite genders). The three that are actually dead were killed saving Etah, shoving him through a wormhole to safety after setting an anti-matter bomb in a Hasheaon compound. Etah lived ever since believing that he was the reason they died. The reason she died. Suddenly, catching his attention from his reminenscing, the door to the observation room was opened. "Colonel Etah. Royal Orders were faxed through just now. We're to set course for these coordinates andawait instruction from a Senatorial overseer." The runner explained. A moment of thought from Etah, and then a simple order: "Make course, then." -- -- A short ride of a few minutes (Etah's flagship had the finest technology available, be it weapons, sheilds, or FTL), Etah was looking at an unassuming planet below. He looked at his first mate. "Are these coordinates correct? We've been waiting for a half hour, and still we haven't been hailed by a Senatorial." "They are correct sir. Here, see? We're being hailed by- Wait, no, that can't be right..." "What is it?" "It's channel 910-13, scramble set 1.425." "There is no channel 910-13" says a nearby technician. " Ah, but there is. I've used it occasionally. It's used for super top secret transmissions, Senatorial Hi-Risk only. It's no wonder thier using it to contact a HIRIOT. But here, on this planet..." "Not just on this planet, sir. Approximately 3 klicks underground." Etah stood and thought for a moment. "Pick it up, we've kept them waiting." "It's text only sir, encoded in a cipher." "Use cipher set 11.1201" Hesitation form the first mate, then action. "We've been ordered to land at a small bunker at these coordinates, sir. There's also a riddle: In the maintence room, say only your name." "Then set us down, Lt. I think I have an idea of what I've been summoned for." "Sir?" "Sorry, Lt. Can't tell you. Very hush-hush." "And sir-" "What, Lt?" "We're not the only ones here." Brigadier Assault Commando Pyro Charr of the Galactic Federation (GHD Empire) In the depths of space, hovering above the planet Abyson, two opposing forces waged massive warfare. The defending forces under the rule of Grand Admiral Tyranis fought to keep key planets around the magrus gateway under their control. Meanwhile, forces led by Admiral Cinder, under the rule of Grand Admiral Fafnir aimed to take the planet back. Through mid space explosions and the debris of battered ships, Pyro Charr, a Brigadier Assault Commando, prepared to lead a massive strike on the planets surface, but just as he walked into the flagship, "The Black Emerald's," main hangers, the enemy unleashed a new kind of weapon that no-one was ready for. They fired off something akin to a black hole generator, and it swiftly pulled a good chunk of Cinder's forces, including The Black Emerald through time and space and into another dimension. The violent shaking caused by the unexpected blck hole left all but the Jestico Class Mega-Dreadnought completely inoperable. Trapped in another dimension, the fleet set off a distress beacon, in hopes that some kind of help would come. The Bunker The Bunker is the command center for the GSSOC. It is where the team members, their staff, and the bunker's workers themselves live. It has a relatively unassuming and drab entrance, the bunker's many secrets being kept by a quite clever maintinence storage room facade. When you walk inside, you are surrounded by dirty mops, roller buckets of grimy water, windows caked with muck and scum, and quite ugly walls and floors. However, there is a broom resting in the North-Eastern corner that will not budge when you try to move it. It is welded to the floor. The rounded top of the shaft reveals a button after popping up to a verbal code. If you press it, the part of the floor West of the broom is retracted, revealing a glimmering staircase. It is a long walk, and ends at a fantastically decorated lobby where several people of mixed species are swallowed up by their work on Sporeputers. There is an elevator adjacent to a plush couch on the Western wall, and in it are dozens of buttons. The elevator simply does not go up and down, but side-to-side as well. The building contains a plethora of rooms, ranging from dormitories to hangars. Follows is a list of rooms and their corresponding codes for the elevator and all official documents pertaining to The Bunker. The letter represents the room or department's position horizontally in the underground fortress, and the number represents where it is vertically. The building is planned somewhat like a Cartesian Plane. A1 - Lobby and secretary working stations. A2 - Non-essential staff quarterings. A3 - Supercomputer room. Contains a hyperintelligent AI manufactured through joint effort by the galaxy's main tech firms. A4 - Primary armory. Contains weapons of all sorts, including riot equipment and small-scale nuclear weaponry. A5 - Secondary armory. Armory containing standard assault equipment for security staff. A6 - Maintinence and cleaning staff dormitories. B1 - Gym. High-quality facility for all staff, team members, and visitors to exercise in. B2 - Cafeteria. For all non-team members that have any meals inside the bunker. B3 - Chapel. Split into multiple sections for the myraid of religions practiced in the building by the many species that inhabit it. C1 - Security staff dormitories. mini-armory inside. C2 - Building cleaning and maintinence storage rooms. C3 - Main power generator. Runs on geothermal energy. C4 - Aeroponic farm. Capable of eliminating bunker reliance on outside food if the need arises. All D levels - Hangar bay. Contains vehicles, spacecraft, and aircraft of all sorts barring anything larger than a gunship or walker from all species involved with the bunker. E1 - Electronics room. Nerve center of the bunker's power grid. E2 - Medical center. Contains the equipment and skilled professionals usually found in the galaxy's leading emergency centers. E3 - Base game center. Contains games ranging from virtual to board to sports. E4 - Base shop. Small grocery store. E5 - Base library. Contains over 17,000 physical books and over ninety million stored digitally. E6 - Bunker training facilities. Staff can train with hundreds of weapons and study sixteen physical combat arts. E7 - Bunker water storge. F1 - Auxillary storage room. F2 - GSSOC team dormitories. Contains dining room where food is delivered by base staff, and many other luxuries not avalible to main staff. F3 - Briefing room. Where the GSSOC team recieves their assignments. Rules Each "Player" is in control of a character from their species. In each operation (which is written in tandem), an operation intro is written by the mission creator detailing all of the things that the characters did in The Bunker before the start of the operation. When the operation starts, another player begins the writing. Missions Mission 1 Intro "So... that's the operation you two. By the way, Colonel Etah and Captain Alimiraa won't be joining you for the mission. Something came up before they learned of this op." General Kesstik said, lacking his regular official tone. "Dismissed." Ahrganot and Tholker stood and left the briefing room and made their way towards the hangar. "So, we'll arrive in orbit around the planet in a Senate cruiser leased from the Konry, and then fly down in an HV-17. After that we parachute in. Sound right?" Zhevhyit asked. "Sounds right to me." The two walked into the hangar and approached the activated HV-17, which they promptly entered. The doors of the helicopter slammed shut and it lifted off. The huge hangar doors slowly opened, and the helicopter flew out and up towards the cruiser in orbit. Four hours later... "Alright, you two. We're at optimum drop altitude of 10,000 feet. Stand up!" The pilot yelled. An Eteno opened the side door and gestured for Tholker and Ahgranot to line up, as for normal precedure. Dhragolon The two looked down and could not see the ground, only a blue expanse of clouds. "Alright, let's do this!" Tholker said. He jumped first and began to plummet towards the ground. Ahrganot stretched out his wings getting ready to jump. Fortunately, he had the moderately developed wings trait and had the ability to glide so he didn't need a parachute. Then, he leaped out soaring downwards like a Ptero-eagle from Ucharpli. Ahrganot sped up joining Tholker who was still in free fall. Not long after, Tholker activated his parachute as they began descent into a green forest out of signal range from the nearby city. Suddenly, a strong wind separated the two of them and Tholker's parachute was torn. Ahrganot began to lose his balance and rapidly began to flap his wings. "Oh c'mon. Not now!" Tholker said. He began uttering prayers to Marana as he rapidly descended. Shouting over the radio, Ahrganot said, "Tholker, are you alright?" "Not really. Wherever that turbulence came from, it was strong enough to put a hole in my chute." "I've been blown off course. I'm not sure that I can reach you before impact." As Tholker rapidly descended, he crashed through the crown of the trees about to hit the hard ground, but he stopped just before; his chute was caught in a tree. Ahrganot was at least a mile away. Eteno "Agh... oh well, nothing I can't get out of." Tholker produced a knife from his belt and sliced the cords connecting him to the ruined parachute that was snagged on the thick forest cover. He fell several feet and hit the ground on his feet. "Better check my bearings." He mumbled to himself. He studied his positioning system and found that he was far from the city. If he wanted to get there before nightfall, he would need a mount. He began his trek in the direction of the city he was planned to land near. He walked for about half an hour until he exited the densest part of the forestland. Zhevhyit pulled out his radio and checked the op. channel for any interference or natives unwittingly using it. It was clear. Good. "''Tholker to Ahrganot. Tholker to Ahrganot. Do you read?" "Copy that Tholker. What's your position?" "That was a strong gust. I'm thirty klicks off of the drop zone. You'll have to initiate the op without me." "Roger that." --- Ahrganot surveyed the vast cityscape before him from the relative safety of a tall, densely-foliated tree with his binoculars. The team had to avoid bringing anything too high-tech or too much, as it would give them away to the warring factions of the planet. The city looked very pristine and there were no crumbling buildings in sight. Either the city had good repairmen, or it was untouched by the war. "A good a place as any to start, I suppose." Dhragolon Ahrganot donned a mask to fit his face and hid his wings under his jumpsuit. He glued leaves to his suit with mud to make him look like a primitive tribal inhabitant. He entered the city taking his first glance at the inhabitants. They were somewhat shorter than him, yet taller than an Eteno. Immediately, he came to gate with several guards. This city must be rather peaceful, yet still aware of the war. Ahrganot did not really know how to approach these people so he improvised. "Greetings, I wish to enter the city." "I need your passport, please." Then, the guard rudely said, "Now just wait a minute. What kind of wacko tries to waltz in dressed up as a dragon? Seems a bit suspicious on my part." "What are you talking about? All I want to do is introduce myself to your people. I've never been in a city before." "Don't play dumb with me, warmonger. I know what you are up to." Another guard said, "You know this guy could be one of those weird Forest Dwellers." "He's a bit tall for one, but I guess he passes for a Forest Dweller. After all, they are kind of ignorant and dress in weird costumes." Within the mask, Ahrganot rolled his eyes. Then, the first guard said, "Although you don't have a passport, I need to see your face. I just want to make sure you are not a spy or anything." "Oh no! My face is all scratched up by a lion! You'll faint at the sight of it." "Doesn't matter. Show me." Reluctantly, Ahrganot removed his mask trying to keep his real face as still as possible and holding his breath. The guards burst out laughing. "Ha ha! I never knew you guys wore two masks! I must say, why would you put the more realistic mask underneath the fake one?" Putting his mask back on, Ahrganot replied, "It's one of our customs. If you let me in, I would gladly enlighten your people of our interesting ways." "Fine. You can come in, but you are not allowed to enter any government buildings. I'm still suspicious of you." As Ahrganot literally waltzed in he sent a secret code via radio to Tholker alerting him that he was in the city. Karnasaur "What the hell were you thinking, General? Sending them in with out me? How long have they been running hhi-risk ops, General? I've done it for thousands of years. At yet you'd think that just because I had to run a quick confirmation with with my superiors, you should send them in any way?" Etah was furious. He felt he was being a bit arrogant, but he felt that he should have been at least alerted to the teams departure with out him. "Colonel, we had to get the team on the ground with or with out you. If either side gets to orbit they'll start colonizing planets to get the edge on the other with extra-planetary resources and-" I don't want to here it. I see your point general, but you still should have told me the team was leaving." With that, Etah turned toward the Sauran transport behind him. "Where are you going?" "They may've already started the op, but they aren't ending it with out me. With Sauran FTL I'll be planet side within the hour. I'll radio the team to get a sitrep when I get there." With that, Etah sealed the transport door and gestured for the pilot to take off. -- In a half hour Etah was in orbit around the planet. He could see smoke and fire on the surface. "Pilot, this planet's superfactions- are they nuclear capable?" "No sir, but one side exploits thermite explosives in every thing from bullets to grenades to long range missiles." "Must have the advantage." "Actually sir, the other faction has powerful shield technology. Thermite is useless against them. They only use it in small elite infantry and city defense, though. Drop time, sir." Etah nodded and climbed into his SODP (Sauran Orbital Drop Pod). He sealed the door and "kicked the door", or punched the release switch. Next thing he felt was getting jettisoned out of the transport- hard. He was heading groundside, and fast. Only Etah did orbital drops this high, and that's because when you hit the ground there's enough force to bend impervium. When he did hit the ground, he felt a cybernetic in his leg pop out of place. "Ah, for the love of Yetu-" Etah complained. Displaced implants are the worse. Fortunatly, it was the loose one that Etah just has to pop back in. "Much better." Surveying his surroundings, he heard several shouts and fotsteps headed his way. ''"Natives." Etah, using his Sauran insticts, hid in the darkness to evaluate the threat. When he saw several unclassified sentients clad in high-tech armor, he knew this was going to be difficult. Using his universal translator, he heard one, the commander, it seems, give an order to search the pod for enemy technology. Shields especially. "Thermites" Etah thought to himself. Following standard procedure to prevent technology thft he snuck away to a safe distance, activated his wrist computer, and entered the self destruct code for his pod. A 3 second countdown, a flash of light, and all that was left was brown paste and ash. "At least I know two things now: I'm in Thermite territory, and they have brown blood." Eteno Tholker had finally found a way to get to the city. It was a mule. The four-legged animal was wandering aimlessly, with a saddle on its back. The Eteno had brought some grain, so he knew there was a way to lead the animal on. Tholker fashioned a see-through bag with materials from his bag and a pouch on his belt. He tied the bag to a stick, mounted the animal, and held the stick over the mule's head in the direction of the city. "Tholker Zhevhyit! Come in Tholker! This is Colonel Etah Owar." His radio blared abruptly. After recovering from his heart attack, Zhevhyit replied: "Colonel Etah Owar, eh? I knew there was a new team member coming. Anyway, I'm on the way to the city. Ahrganot is already in posing as a tribal crazy. Where are you? "About two klicks North of your position. I killed a few of these creatures and destroyed my pod to prevent them from tracking me." "On any normal occasion, I would say good job and buy you a beer, but now is not the time for killing. I'll see if I can get to your position." "Copy that, but I had little choice but to kill them. Otherwise they would've realized something not of thier world was here. Etah out." The Eteno linguist switched off his radio and continued his ride. He adjusted the position of the stick and bag slightly so that the mule would move in the direction of Owar. Karnasaur After speaking with Tholker, Etah decided he should radio Ahrganot to get a sitrep on the city. "Etah to Ahrganot, do you copy?" "I copy. I thought you weren't coming, Colonel." "Guess you thought wrong. Tholker informs me you're in a city, designate it Alpha Point. Standby, I'm going to run a topographic scan to get an idea of the mission site." "Copy that." In a few seconds Etah had a holomap in is palm showing the topography a the area within 5 klicks. There were dots representing the positions of his team mates. "Tholker, request you join radio conversation for tactical planning." "Copy that Etah. Ears on friendly signal." "By the looks of things, we landed on the frontlines, Alpha Point is in the middle of a tactical chokepoint, a valley leading into faction designated Shield Faction territory. Faction designated Thermite Faction is currently laying siege to it." "That can't be right. The city is untouched by the war, and it's probably at DEFCON 3." Ahrganot reported. "That's because Shield Faction has powerful shield technology, artillery, ballistics, probably even land units can't phase it. Thermtie Faction employs thermite in its weaponary, and we all know incendiaries don't deal any damage against shields. Remember our primary objective. We have to determine a way to end the civil war. I recommend determining a faction and crippling its military. We knowe how we can cripple both factions: We can break the siege to let the Shields win, or sabotage the shield to let the Thermites break through. Feedback?" Etah replied. Before anyone could respond, Etah saw several more Thermites walk into his view, a platoon. They heard the explosion and were investigating. "Etah to team: Radio silence" Dhragolon Ahrganot attempted to communicate telepathically to Etah and Tholker. He was no philosopher and Telepathic Amplifiers did not work on other races, but nearly all Dhragolon had some form of telepathy. He could not get his message out in words since he wasn't fluent in Karnasaur nor Eteno language (translators would not obviously work), but he tried to imply it via emotions, a vital skill that all peacekeepers involved directly with interracial matters needed to posses. It took a while to get his message out, but he managed to. He said, "Guys, don't use the radio to talk to me. Some of our signals are being picked up and are being deciphered. It will be awhile before they realize we are speaking three different languages, but I'm going to play it safe until the invasion is over." Ahrganot actually received a message back once again in the form of emotions. He couldn't tell whether it was from Etah or Tholker. "What's the status of Alpha Point?" "Nothing unusual though there's explosions just over the horizon," Ahrganot responded. "What did you think of my strategy?" a voice said which was most likely Etah's. "Cripple the Thermite faction's economy. They are the aggressors and the swiftest way to end this without being noticed is to sabotage them silently; we shouldn't furthur involve the Shield faction. I'll head over to the frontlines to sabotage the tanks." Ahrganot began to prance about, preaching about the evils of war and how the Shield Faction should not fight back. He purposely did this so that the war would not escalate on the non-violent side, and it actually worked somewhat to a degree. Occasionally a tomato was thrown at him and some of even threw a few vulgar insults, but Ahrganot made his way very discretely nonetheless to where the tanks were laying siege. Eteno Ahrganot, defying almost all odds, managed to slip out of the city and flanked the Thermite faction's heavy tanks. He quickly sifted through his unassuming sack and produced not only the highest-quality explosives, but high-powered one-use heaters. If he planted one of those under one of the besieging tanks, it would melt the bottom of the hull and any important parts there. He scanned the two others in his team telepathically, and picked up Zhevhyit practicing Yallvus to himself. "I didn't know you spoke Yallvus Talk, Tholker." "Aye, I do. I'm a linguist, you know." The Eteno replied mentally in the Dhragolon's language. "That's good. I'm about to sabotage Thermite's tanks, what is your position?" "I think I can see Etah hiding... there are a few Thermites inspecting the bloody mess that he made. I'm gonna abandon my ride and meet up with him." "Alright, good luck. I'm moving in." "You too." -- Tholker quit his metal speaking and jumped off of his mount. He took the bag of grains that he was using to lead the creature and threw it in the direction of the Thermites. The mule chased after it. This gave the Eteno the perfect opportunity to leap into Etah's hiding place. "How's it hangin', Etah?" Tholker whispered casually in perfect Karnasaur. Karnasaur Etah couldn't help but give a smirk. He had heard of Tholker's linguistic abilities when he read his dossier, but didn't think he could fluently speak such casual Sauran. "Tholker. Took the scenic route, eh?" "Mules don't exactly move that fast, you know." "Hm. Now then, let's get to work. I did some picking about the radio channels and found out that the Thermites are religious zealots; They worship some kind of fire god they call Valcanoth, undoubtedly on account of thier effiency with thermite. They believe those who live and die by the flame will join Valcanoth in his great volcano, awaiting to make the final march on the infidels during a mighty eruption they call, Valcanarok. The nonbelievers and those who fail to be cremated are believed to be frozen in a ort of Hell-Tundra and-" "Etah, no offense, but how does any of this help?" "I was just about to get there: Thier idea of a demon is a dragon of shadow who speaks in an alien tongue." Both smiled at the idea, and Etah knew Tholker understood: Thermites were afraid of Karnsaurs. "Here goes..." Etah said as he removed his translator. He jumped down to another tree, and threw a loose brach when the soldiers weren't looking in the opposite direction. While they were distracted, he jumped into the hole left by his pod. He was aiming for a "Rising from Hell" approach. When the soldiers returned, he streched his wings a lttle and took a deep breath. He raised one claw and sunk into the ground above. They soldiers looked, with a frightened curiosity. he rose anothe claw and sunk it into the ground further away. He rose himself up onto the ground, slowly, growling quietly and low. The soldiers rose thier weapons, ready to fire on the strange creature. Etah rose to his hind legs, rising easily 2 feet higher than them. They gazed up in fear and alarm as one quivered: "Daímonas!" Though Etah couldn't understand without his translator, he knew the soldier just called him a demon. Good. They were buying it. Suddenly, brushing with his inner beastial instinct, his low growl turned into a loud, bone-chilling, spine-tingling, heart-stopping, roar, filled with bestial vigor. The soldiers were absolutely petrified. One of them fainted. One started to run. The others followed suit, all the way shouting, "Daímonas!". Etah couldn't help but smile his toothy smile and laugh. He saw straks of light moving across the sky, artillery bolts from the siege force. He saw them hit an invisible barrier indicating Alpha Point was near. Etah looked at Tholker, his smile gone. "I think it's time we let the Thermites know that playing with fire is dangerous." Dhragolon Not long after, Etah and Tholker met up with Ahrganot who had taken cover after Thermite Tanks breached the city walls. "Nice costume you got there," Tholker said. "Not really the time for compliments, but thanks. How have you been holding up?" Etah replied, "We've discovered a way to fool these people into believing that I'm a demon." After a brief explanation, Alagor commented, "I see. Do you think I could do something like that?" "I suppose so. We are both dragons after all." "It's rather tough trying to take down a tank discretely without giving away myself. I've only taken out one by only by sabotaging their engines. They quickly learned from their mistakes and I haven't been able to get close to them." "Well, they probably assume you are a devil worshipping Forest Dweller given your costume, but I assume you can show your true identity." "I might as well. They are going to be looking for a crazy primitive person wandering around trying to sabotage their engines again." Ahrganot removed his costume revealing his draconic appearance. Then Etah and Ahrganot dashed straight to the tanks appearing right in front of them. Tholker's translator read, "By Valcanoth, demons have appeared!" Etah in his mockingly demonic impression spoke through his translators, "Your time is up, Thermites! Valcanoth has judged you!" "Is this some sort of trick by those infidel Shield Faction?" Ahrganot drew his energy sword and effortlessly destroyed one of the tanks which would have blew his cover as Forest Dweller. "These are demons! All tanks, in the name Valcanoth, we must rid these horrible monsters of this realm!" Every single tank laying siege to the city turned around aimed their guns at Etah and Ahrganot. As there was no need to mask their technologies, they used all of their technologies against the army. While Etah and Ahrganot distracted the tanks, Tholker came up and attacked from behind. Eteno Etah and Ahrganot effortlessly weved and danced between the tanks with unparalelled agility, and sliced and diced as they went along. One of the tanks trained its sights on Etah, and prepared to fire. Mere seconds before the slug rocketed out of the barrel, the armored vehicle exploded and burst into violent flames. About ten meters away was Tholker chucking AT charges left and right. However, he soon reached into his grenade pack and grasped nothing but air. "I'm bingo on grenades! Try to slice the barrels and shove something sharp through the hole, it'll screw up the loading mechanisms!" He yelled through his translator, not wanting to have to speak to his allies in two languages. The Karnasaur and the Dhragolon yelled their affirmation, and Tholker grabbed a blunt, iron rod that had flown from the explosion of one of the Shield Faction's walls. He had left his broadsword in the bushes near the fight so he could be more mobile. Three soldiers of the Thermites quickly approached the short, yellow trooper and grasped their weapons anxiously. Zhevhyit charged and dove to the ground as his target swung horizontally with his sword. Tholker rolled between the larger Thermite's legs and swung the rod up and smashed his sensitive area with the cold iron. The alien yelled and collapsed as the Eteno immediately rose and pummeled another Thermite's face with the rod as he ascended. The final enemy closed in but was met with the iron rod as he foolishly charged forth. Zhevhyit heard the sickening and pleasing sound of cracking bone. Before Tholker moved on to assist his partners, he slammed the first enemy's head with his weapon. "Try to get into a tank and kill the operators so we can use it!" Karnasaur "I think I have a better idea!" Etah shouted back. He was enjoying his time as a demon, and wanted it to end demonically. He reached into his belt and pulled out a transmitter beacon, the kind used to call in orbital strikes. He was thinking of a sort of, "Judgment Day" type of thing. "I'm going to blow this siege force to hell! I have a Sauran corvette waiting in orbit capable of dropping a small High Energy Laser strike. Radio for it to teleport on board and tell the pilot to await my signal and align the HEL to central coordinates of the beacon!" "I don't think so, Etah! I'm coming with you!" Tholker replied "Same here!" Ahgranot agreed. "Stubborn little..." Etah began to think, but was interuppted by a bullet lodging in his skull. He turned around, and his cybernetics fixed on an enemy sniper 500m away. He locked on, aimed, and lodged a bullet of his own into the aliens brain. That was the 23rd bullet this year, all foiled kill shots, spoiled only by his genetic rewrites. Adamantine skeleton was just one perk he picked up rom the ELICAN program 5 Sauran lifetimes ago... Before he sunk into thought, as so many Karnasaurs did, he began to trudge through the siege force, razing the aliens that shot at him, supressing the ones that didn't. All the while Tholker and Ahgranot were keeping him updated on enemy positions and distance from target zone. When he reached it, he placed the small beaon on the ground, and as he was gripping his radio to signal for extraction, he was knocked aside by a massive alien. No, not an alien. A giant walker. "Ah, for the love of Yetu..." The walker fixated on him and charged up what seemed to be, and what Etah hoped to be, its main cannon. "This... is gonna hurt. Alot" And the next thing he saw was a giant explosion in front of him, and he ended up gaping. He looked back at were Tholer and Ahgranot should've been and saw a Thermite tank with a smoking barrel with Ahgranot on the MG. Tholker emerged from the drivers canopy, smiling at Etah. He grabbed at his radio, and half-laughed the order for evac out. He was teleported inside the corvette with Tholker and Ahgranot, and ordered the pilot to drop the HEL Strike on the target. They recieved a lovely view of what undoubtedly the Thermites thought was thier god raining judgement down upon them. In fact, Etah could swear he heard one of them shout "Volcanoth's rage is upon us! Retreat!" He laughed and looked at the holo-display. Sat-intel showed Thermite forces in full retreat from Alpha Point, with Shield military forces coming to reinforce Alpha Point. Only they didn't stop at Alpha Point. They were in pursuit of the Thermites now. "Gentlemen, our mission is complete. I assume our superiors will want Us to return to the Bunker at once for debriefing. And, boys..." Etah started. Karnasaurs were natrually proud, and humility out of them was rare, though it came if trully warrented. Tholer and Ahgranot were staring at him. "You did good." He lfted a glass of Sauran champaign and opened it, pouring every one a glass. He lifted his in a toast. "To a great and successful partnership between us in the times to come. Yetu bless our times together and make them worthwhile, and when they draw to a close, as all things must, may they end in a great climax to be told for times to come." It was an ancient Sauran prayer or sorts. It is used only to commemorate the start of a great friendship and partnership. That was the first time Etah used it in company of aliens. It was also the last. Mission 2 Intro "So what you are saying is that some genetic supersoldiers are causing havoc for no apparent reason?" Tholker ranted. Ahrganot replied, "This is odd indeed. Who knows what they could do? Better yet, why are they doing that?" Grandmaster Ckeros Aldorus replied, "That's why you are on this mission. We made a non-aggression pact with these Genodraco, and they have loyaly upheld it for the past 4,000 years. Capturing one of each member of the Alpha class is crucial in determining why they are acting strangely." Etah said, "I'm sure we can handle this. I'd like to see how well I hold up to one of these Genodraco. Just how strong are they?" The Grandmaster replied, "Don't underestimate them at all costs. Countless Dhragolon warriors gave their lives to suppress these creatures all those centuries ago. The shuttle to the bait colony Eska will leave in fifteen minutes so be sure you are ready." Eteno Several hours later, the shuttle set down on the rough ground of the bait colony. Tholker waltzed off first, his mind on distant things. After the previous mission, he had discovered he was quite adept at using blunt instruments to cause unprecedented amounts of pain. He had a heavy metal club strapped to his back, which was aptly named Hitstick von Headcrasher by one of The Bunker's security guards, and cradled his assault rifle as he walked around. "Alright, let's move to the ambush base." Etah said as he walked off the shuttle shortly before it raised its ramp. "Alright." "Cool." The trio checked Tholker's UPS (Universal Positioning System) and started off towards the ambush location. Already, they could see Genodraco in the atmosphere. They quickly advanced towards their base on the outskirts of town only to find a Genodraco advance scout loitering around the general location. However, it had not noticed the three yet. Tholker signaled for the two to wait and the short soldier stealthily advanced on the back of the Dragonof. When he was close enough, he lept onto the back of the much taller creature. He immmediately cut off its wings with his switchblade and then drew his club. Before the Dragonof could respond, it was being choked. Unfortunately for Zhevhyit, he had underestimated the strength of the Genodraco. It managed to throw him over its shoulder. However, Tholker rolled and stopped in a crouched position, ready to strike. Etah decided to help and shot close to the Dragonof. It turned for a quick second, and was promptly killed by a quick, hard hit with the metal club. Tholker grinned and picked up some teeth that had fallen out of the creature's mouth. "I am definately making a necklace outta the teeth of my foes." He said casually as Etah and Ahrganot walked towards him. Karnasaur Etah couldn't help but laugh. In ancient Sauran culture, in the Pre-Yetu era before Yetu led the Elican tibes to civilization, warriors were encouraged to make necklaces out of thier victims body parts; teeth, claws, wingtips, etc. It was believed this binded the soul of the victim to the wearer of the necklace, giving the wearer a blessing of sorts; if the soul was intelligent, it was believed that the warrior will become more intelligent as long as he wear the necklace. The elites often began to implement this into thier armor; they would have spikes jutting out of thier armor which have a sense of lethality. When his team asked why he was laughing so hard, he explained the whole thing, but tried to keep it short. He ended with, "Maybe it'll make you taller, Tholker" which was promptly responded to by a jeering pain in his shin. "Ah, now then, enough of this nonsense. let's get into position. These Genodraco will regret thier recent aggression." Etah said. They gathered in the ambush base, awaiting for more Genodraco to arrive. Sure enough, a large group landed near thier hideaway, with a larger, well equiped Genodraco at thie head. "Alpha Mech," Ahgranot stated. "Hm. I have an idea. Tholker, get von Headsmasher ready. Ahgranot, lay down distracting fire." Etah said. "Are you mad? You're going to charge them?" Ahgranot questioned, baffled at Etah's brashness. "Of course not. I'm going to rush them." Etah responded. The next thing that happened was debated by all three squadmates to this day. Ahgranot says Etah jumped out of cover, made a dash for the nearest Genodraco, easily snapped its head, and repeated the process with Tholker smashing Genodraco heads in until all thatwas left was the Alpha, with Tholker promptly knocking it out. Etah says Tholker jumped out, smashed a few skulls, and then he jumped out and snapped several necks, until Ahgranot made a tranquilizing shot at the Alpha. Tholker insists that Ahgranot did nothing, Etah jumped out, was shot at repeatedly, until Tholer jumped out and smashed a few skulls, which ended in Etah punching out the Alpha. Whatever happened, the Alpha Mech was subdued and secured. Dhragolon "That's one down. Five to go," Tholker said. The Alpha Mech was taken to a ship in the upper atmosphere via tractor beam. The three of them looked over the mountain dotted horizon just below the two, red menacing moons Torva and Atrox. Tons of buildings suddenly collapsed which left their jaws dropping in awe. Tholker exclaimed, "What just happened to that city?" Ahrganot spoke through his radio to a ship in the upper atmosphere. "Ahrganot to Batra. Do you read me? Over." "I read you Ahrganot. Over." "I need a status report of the cities on this planet. One of them has just been destroyed." "The Genodraco have destroyed 25% of all structures on this planet. You guys had better hurry or else our efforts will be wasted." "Copy that. Over and out." Ahrganot replied. Ahrganot said, "Wow, I had never realized how quickly these Genodraco can move. We better split up if we are ever going to have a chance against these guys. And we better move fast." Tholker said, "Are you kidding? It took the three of us to just capture the weakest one of these guys." Etah said, "Look, we were chosen for this mission for a reason. It's because we are the only ones who actually have a chance. But if we are going to split up, how we might we go about this?" Ahrganot said, "Here's what I think we should do. I'll go after the Alpha Dragonof and the Alpha Zands since they are much taller than most of the other ones. Tholker, you go after the Alpha Splinter and the Alpha Diablo. It seems that you are good at handling opponents with a body structure such as theirs. Etah, that leaves you with the big guy: the General Drakko." Etah replied, "The General Drakko, huh? Fair enough." "Oh and what a coincidence," Tholker said looking at his map. "There's three of us and there's three nearby cities that haven't been destroyed: Cities 726, 119 and 417. We can start our searches in those cities." "Alright then. Let's hurry before this whole planet gets turned to rubble," Ahrganot said. The three of them headed off in separate directions. Ahrganot went to City 726, Tholker to City 119, and Etah to City 417. Eteno Tholker quickly looked around for a way to get to his target location, and locked his eyes on a nearby fuel truck that sat unmoving and driverless, only placed for the purpose of convincing the Genodraco rogues that this was an actual city. Zhevhyit rushed towards it and lept inside after smashing the window with Hitstick von Headcrasher. Finding the key in the ignition, Tholker turned it and then noticed with disdain that he was going to have trouble driving if he couldn't reach the pedal with his foot while being able to see out the window. He looked around frantically and grabbed a small, heavy box and placed it on the gas pedal. The truck jolted forward and then went off at surprisingly great speed. Tholker looked to his UPS and then turned the truck so that it sped towards a large group of Alpha Zands. If these were his ''targets, he might have gone for a less lethal approach than the one he was planning. However, he was far shorter than these Genodraco, and he thought that it would be better if he caused a big distraction for him to sneak up on his actual targets. He neared his objective, and made a loud exclamation out of the window of the vehicle before kicking out the door and leaping out into a small plot of grass. "The underworld has accepted your request for permanent residence!" The truck plowed through dozens of Genodraco and then stopped and exploded as it hit an exposed sphere. The blast sent the body parts of many enemies towards Tholker. He smiled as the limbs piled around him. However, he had matters of great importance in mind. The short soldier dashed towards cover, and near a group of Diablos. Fortunately, they had not seen him. He produced a few knives from his belt and threw them in a flurrry of sharp metal at the backs of all but one. They fell in pain, but were put out of their misery as Tholker promptly moved in and smashed their heads in with his club. To Zhevhyit, this was a more than merciful act. He noticed his target running for cover from the knives he thought were still coming. "Hey tall, fat, and ugly! Get back here!" Dhragolon Ahrganot had soon approached City 726. He climbed to the top of a four storey building to try to search for the Alpha Dragonof and the Alpha Zands. Not long after, a Genodraco pod burst from the ground, releasing a whole army into the city. Then, he spotted one of the ones he was looking for. He tried a rather reckless stragtegy. Ahrganot spotted four towers arranged in a square formation at each of the corners of the city. These were much taller compared to the rest of the other buildings, so he used his agility and blinding speed to travel to each of these towers and destroy their foundations which would knock them over and isolate some Genodraco. "Let's see them get out of this one." In fact, such towers were designed for such purpose; the lower parts of the tower were weak, but the upper areas were incredibly strong and were wide enough so that the Genodraco could not fly over it. Ahrganot estimated that any trapped Genodraco would break through the barriers in ten minutes. The Alpha Zands had jet packs though. It activated them and attempted to fly over the knocked-over towers. However, this gave Ahrganot the oppurtunity to attack as the Alpha Zands isolated itself. Ahrganot climbed to the top of the fallen tower, and dived, tackling the Alpha Zands, cut its wings off and destroyed its jet packs. The Zands, however, picked up a piece of rubble, a metal beam, and began to melee him. Ahrganot was much faster than the Zands, managing to avoid most of its attacks, but he couldn't quite penetrate its rough hide. The fight was very tough. Ahrganot was much stronger than the average Dhragolon so he managed to put up quite a fight. Then through shear luck, he managed to cut off one of the Alpha Zands' legs, rendering it immobile. The ship Batra drew closer and took the Zands aboard with the tractor beam. "That's another one down. Now, I need to find the Alpha Dragonof." Karnasaur Etah was enjoying himself. He knew where the General Drakko would be, safely far behind Genodraco lines. He had managed to follow a squad of Genodraco and brought a stragler into the shadows. pulling it away, he proceeded to pummel and claw at it. He only needed to know the absolute locaton of the General in order to capture him. The Genodraco, a Diablo, was borderline meat before he broke. "Please! Enough!" The Genodraco begged. "Tell me where the General Draco is, and I'll consider letting you live." "I... I don't know where he is-" Etah raised his claw. "Wait! B-But I know where he'll be! A Grox ship, entering orbit soon. He'll be beamed on board to speak to... to someone, I don't know who, but someone important! If you want him, you'll have to board that ship!" "How will I know when it enters orbit?" "Oh, you'll know. I've seen it, its huge! Larger than this planet's largest city!" Etah thought over the Genodraco's account of the ship, and something sprang to mind. He immediatly grabbed the Genodraco by the head and snapped its neck. Etah then looked to the sky, knowing the ship would arrive soon. Sure enough, it exited FTL over the planet, a black behemoth faded by distance and sky. In its center was the Occulus, the command center of the ship located at the belley, a great red eye staring at the planets surface. A beam of light extending down to the surface annouced the General Draco's acension, and Etah thought quick so as to not lose his quarry to FTL. He used his wrist computer to signal for a wormhole to open at co-ordinates that would allow Etah to enter the Occulus quickly, allowing him, hopefully, to see the being the General was conversing with. As the wormhole opened, Etah activated his stealth, sending arcs of energy across his body shortly before a few patches of him were gone, and those patches grew until he was nothing but wavy air. He stepped through the portal into the ship's Occulus, fully stealthed, undetected. He heard the General, and followed the sound to the Comm Room door, where the General was entering the room. Quickly, and with the grace and agility of a Karnasaur Assassin, he slipped through the door before it slidded shut. Eteno Silly Genodraco. It tried to run, but Tholker managed to hit it in the neck with a shock cord. The fleeing enemy collapsed and writhed in pain on the ground, electricity coursing through its body. Zhevhyit signaled for the ship in orbit to beam it up, and a radiant blue column extended a few meters above the writhing body and soon disappeared with the soldier. He continued on, only finding corpses from his stunt a few minutes prior. This really disappointed him. He ran around the skeleton town, looking for any signs of an Alpha Splinter. The majority of the force in the town semed to be Mechs and Zands. He tried to stay stealthy, and trick the soldiers into their death, but always kept a firm grip on his handgun for when he was seen without him allowing the Genodraco to. Finally, after much searching, the short-statured supersoldier spotted a Splinter on a rooftop. Tholker grinned, and slipped into the building the Splinter was perched on. He slithered past two Mech guards and walked slowly down a corridor that led to an emergency staircase. ''Holy... Zhevhyit pressed himself quickly but quietly to a wall as a Genodraco walked by, absorbed in some papers. Probably only by Marana's blessing, the Genodraco (stupidly) did not notice him. However, an officer on his kill list would be rather flattering. It was a quick, painless kill. The baton-like weapon smashed the officer's head in, and a quick-draw of his pistol ensured the deaths of two more Mechs guarding the room. When his quick business was done, Tholker started to run up the stairs. Dhragolon Ahrganot was amidst the crumbling City 726 as ruined buildings and skyscrapers surrounded him. Time was running out and the Genodraco were about to retreat to their sphere. Fortunately, with his sharp eyes, he spotted an Alpha Dragonof. Charging towards it, he drove the sword into the Dragonof's chest, but just missed its heart. The Dragonof jumped over his head and attempted to parry him, but Ahrganot swiftly avoided it. The Dragonof was fast as well and Ahrganot found himself dodging its attacks rather than hitting it. The fight eventually took them to the top of a skyscraper, the only one still standing in the whole city. Ahrganot was getting exhausted and became rather wreckless. He took a few slashes to his face leaving a scar across his left eye. Fortunately, the bleeding was not terrible, but the gash was still deep. Then, he took several more beatings, crippling his right arm. Being almost mortally wounded, Ahrganot harnessed his remaining power using an ancient technique passed down by his ancestors: the Malinian Ice Rage. His scales suddenly locked up and the air around him began to cool. Ahrganot lunged his sword forward one last time, driving it in the Dragnof's shoulder, but this time, the Genodraco's blood was frozen solid. The unconcious, frozen creature was taken aboard the Batra with a tractor beam. As Ahrganot collapsed, he spotted an enormous ship obscured in the distance by the deathly smoke. It had menacing, outer architecture: it was Occulus. The building he lay upon became unstable and was about to fall over. Ahrganot uttered a prayer as the skyscraper leaned over and became free from its foundation. Karnasaur Etah was seeing the impossible. The General Drakko was walking toward the center of the Occulus, the precise senter of the ship itself. He stopped a few feet short of a holoprojector and kneeled. "The General shouldn't kneel to anyone," ''Thought Etah. The projector sprung to life as a cloaked figure came into view. Etah couldn't tell what species, just that it was humanoid. The General spoke first. "My master," The General said in a strangly formal, even intimidated voice. "The cities crumble before us. But I am losing communication with some of my Alphas." When the cloaked figure spoke, Etah couldn't believe his ears. In a raspy, hoarse voice, the figure said, "It does not matter. They are expendable. The only thing we need is the GSSOC Team. Not even the Eteno or Dhragolon. It is only Etah that interests me." But Etah wasn't in disbelief at the figure's sole interest in him, he understood that, or even his understanding GSSOC was even here. He knew this figure. His voice. His contacts. Renr Gron. Thousands of standard years ago, Etah served with a Karnasaur ELICAN V.2, a product of the V.2 ELICAN Program, a failed attempt at making more, cheaper ELICANS. They were definitly supersoldiers, but they were incomparable to Etah's ELICANS. During a Hi-Risk mission in the Core to extract intel from a Grox mainframe, Renr was captured shortly after uploading the intel to Etah's wrist computer, which he used to save several lives. He was officially declared KIA. Renr was the finest Karnasaur Etah knew at the time, he would never betray the Galaxy, which leads to one conclusion: Before they were exterminated, the Grox... implanted him. The General Drakko responds. "Yes my lord, but they are elusive. I have heard reports of the Eteno and Dhragolon, but the Karnasaur is but a shadow in the darkness." "I do not care. Find him, or at least his friends. We have destroyed several cities to coax them out, and now that they are finally here, I will not let them slip through our grasp. Do you understand, General?" "Y-yes, my lord." They General manages to babble out. "Good. You know the price of failure." The figure, Renr, faded out. Transmission ended. Etah, always one for theatrics if it does't affect effiency, sat down in a nearby chair. The General sent a message on his radio, "All units, re-double your efforts, find the Karnasaur, or at least his little friends." Etah decided this was a good time to decloak. Eteno Tholker began to dash up the staircase, but immediately ran back to the officer he killed seconds ago to collect the papers he was so absorbed in. The linguist skimmed over them quickly, and found that not only did the Genodraco know they were here, they were after Etah. "Oh, wonderful. I better finish up here and help out the tall guy." Zhevyhit sprinted up the stairs, smashing the heads of any Genodraco unfortunate enough to be in the building. Tholker reached the fire door at the very top of the staircase, and pulled out his assault rifle. "Alright, here we go..." The short Eteno slammed a curved explosive charge on the door, and turned his back to the door while covering his head. The charge annihilated the door and sent it flying off of the building, bringing a few Mechs with it. Tholker charged out onto the roof and fired at everything except the Splinter, which stood calmly by as his shocked comrades fell dead. "Alright, fatty, get on the ground!" The Splinter ripped out a laser pistol and fired at Tholker, prompting him to dive behind a useless, skeleton of a vent. The second it was shot, it fell over on Zhevhyit. "Schohslung!" Fortunately, Tholker collected himself and fired at the Splinter's legs. The Genodraco collapsed, and screamed in pain. "Alright, beam up mister tall fat." Dhragolon As Ahrganot fell with the collapsing skyscraper, he saw visions of happiness and satisfaction. He could see Kray almost welcoming him. However, the image suddenly turned to darkness. As he awoke lying on the ground (his wings breaking his fall) he saw a dark cloaked figure. "Ah good. You are still alive." Ahrganot's eyes barely opened. He managed to stand up and say, "Who...who are you?" The figure was about as tall as him. "Where is Etah?" "I am not obligated to tell you that if I knew." The figure quickly went up to him holding a dagger up to his throat. "Tell me, or else I'll paint my dagger red with your blood." Ahrganot was still weak and could not fight back. "Last time I checked, he's probably aboard that giant ship in the sky." "Bah! Those wretched Grox again. Such a thorn on our side. But I can't let you live as you already know too much." Ahrganot, sensing danger, managed to reenergize himself by absorbing heat from the sun and quickly dodged the figures stab. As the brief fight continued, Ahrganot knocked the figure in the face, unveiling its hood revealing it to be a Dhragolon. Ahrganot was awed. "Dark scales?! Orange eyes?! You...you're a corrupted one. You're not Rarsan are you?" "Rarsan?" The corrupted Dhragolon spit on the ground. "What a traitor. He failed us and became indoctrinated by his own brother! The real king is Altus Banya! And he was murdered by you Neo-Renyanists!" "That happened thousands of years ago. Why the grudge?" "I have no time to argue with you. This is not the last time we meet." When Ahrganot turned his head, the figure was gone having seemingly vanished into thin air. With his strength back, he managed to beam himself aboard the Occulus via the Batra and see what was taking Etah so long. Etah was uncloaked about to confront the General Drakko. Ahrganot, however, did not have enough energy to help fight the Genodraco so he watched from the darkness. Karnasaur Sitting on a chair, one leg over the other, the whole scene look like the General was invading the elusive mastermind's lair. "General Drakko. Nice to finally meet your aquaintance. A shame your little Sauran friend couldnt join us in person, he would've been so much more helpful." The General looked comically shocked. "Karnasaur! How dare you invade this place! The master will surely rain praise on me when I bring him your corpse!" The General exclaimed as he whipped out his pistol. Etah help up a finger and waved it back and forth. "Ah,ah,ah. I'm wanted alive, remember. So are you. It seems we are at an impasse. What say we just throw our weapons aside and see who nature... or rather, nature and a few scientists designed more superiorly." Etah taunted. Throwing his pistol aside, the Drakko dashed at Etah, roaring, just missing a blow. Etah moved aside and, with the grace of an angel, tripped the General over and turned to face him. A the General rose to his feet, Etah sped at him, only to be surprised at te General's speed and dexterity; in his position, it would be impossible to be able to land a backhand slap as powerful as it was. Crashing into a wall, Etah recovered quickly, but not quickly enough. The General was right there, landing several blows into Etahs gut, followed by a painful uppercut to Etah's skull, right in a Sauran's weak spot: under the chin was a bundle of muscles and nerves that control a Karnasaurs general face movement. Disoriented by being unable to breath or refocus his eyes, the General threw him aside, hard, into the ground. Something happened then that hadn't happened for several thousand years: Etah's skull broke. He felt the bone shatter against the ground. Etah prayed it wasn't lethal, not yet any way. He had to stop the General's slaughter. Gathering his strength, he stood, weakly, and stared the General down. Then, another rare occurence happened: Etah entered a blood haze, a rare fenzy experienced only by Karnasaurs. A small gland located in the Sauran brain produces a sort of hyperadrenaline, activating a killing frenzy not seen since Karnasaurs gained a frontal lobe. Only 10% of Karnasaurs still had a so-called "kill gland", and only 1% of them had an active one. 0.1% of them ever experienced a blood haze. It was an exciting thing, the kind of heart-stopping, mind-numbing, toe-curdling vigor experienced nowhere else. The world turned red, and all that existed was the General Drakko. Etah forgot he had a body, he could feel the blood flowing to his eyes, turning them red and the world he was in. He let loose a bestial roar unheard of in modern Sauran society, not even the Brotherhood of Beastials (a Sauran cult dedicated to balancing animalistic and modern thought) could match it. He sped at the General with the speed of sound, instantly smashing him against the wall. He ripped him from the dent he made, jumped up, General's neck in hand, and threw the General upward, smashing him into the ceiling, Etah jumped and caught the General before he dropped too far, grabbed a dangling pipe, turned, and slinged the genral into the red glass below. Tempered as it was, it cracked all across.Dropping down, landing on both feet with the grace of an angel once more, Etah felt his rage ending, the world loosing its red haze, his eyes loosing thier blood. He walked over to the still breathing General, who moaned. Etah stared at him and said: "I win." A voice rang out, Ahrganot's: "Remind me to never get you angry" Eteno Thump Bang '''Smash ' "aaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Tholker plummetted from a cieling vent, busted through the grate, and crashed into the ground with a loud thud, nearly giving his comrades heart attacks. "Where in the name of Kray did you come from!?" Ahrganot asked, surprised. Slowly climbing to his feet and collecting everything that went astray from the long fall, Tholker looked up and replied to the Dhragolon's query. "That vent." Etah and Ahrganot sighed. Etah walked back to Drakko and radioed the Batra. "Beam up Drakko, and let's get outta here." "We can't! We're under attack by two unidentified destroyers and our power supply is damaged!" "Agh. How wonderful." Etah turned off his radio and picked up Drakko, hoisting him over his shoulder. "We'd better get going. There's got to be an escape pod or something. We'll have to hide out somewhere on the surface until we can signal one of our fleets." The Karnasaur commanded. "Alright, let's go-" BOOOOO'''M "What was that!?!" Ahrganot yelled. "Well, I uh... I didn't expect us not being able to be teleported off of the ship, so I set a few explosive charges in the magazine and engine bay when I was teleported aboard. Please don't go berserk, Etah." "Then we gotta mo-" '''BOOOOOM Again, the mighty Occulus shook and shuddered. One of the circuits in the wall blew and sent shards of metal flying everywhere. One of these shards flew through Zhevhyit's arm, prompting him to clutch the entry and exit wounds on his right arm with his left hand. "Motherra... are you seriously injured?" Etah yelled. "Yeah, no. I'll be fine." "You sure? Lemme check." "No, I'm-" Ahrganot walked up to Tholker and removed his hand. He discovered black ooze seeping from the wounds and the Eteno's hand pervaded with the liquid. "What is that!?" "Ahh... motor... oil. Listen, we don't have time for this! I'll explain later! There are two cruisers, a battleship, and a light carrier from my nation's navy near this system! I'll try to call them in with my Ham Radio!" Dhragolon The ship began to rapdidly descend as the engines had blown up. Soon, the three of them stumbled upon an escape pod. However, it was only large enough for two people. "Well that's just great. Are you sure there's not another escape pod on this ship," Tholker said. Etah replied, "The rest of them are taken. One of us is going to stay behind." Ahrganot replied, "I've got wings. I'll be fine." "You're kidding, right? We're 20,000 feet in the air and you are injured. It's suicide!" said Tholker. "Tholker, you really shouldn't underestimate me. None of us have parachutes, and I'm the only one here that can actually survive this." "If you say so. Do what you want." The escape pod detached, leaving Ahrganot behind. He crawled through the tunnel which was unblocked by the escape pod and jumped from the ship. Not long, the Occulus violently exploded sending debris in all directions and blowing Ahrganot away like a insect in a hurricane. Ahrganot closed his eyes and let himself fall. Approximately 5 minutes later, Ahrganot awoke about 500 feet above the ground. He spread his wings to break the fall, but his wings got caught in a tree. Although his great fall was broken by a little, his next fall, from the tree to the ground knocked him unconscious breaking his communicator. A shadowy figure passed by soon after noticing his hand was covered in motor oil from Tholker. "Ah. What a coincidence. Just what we need" said the figure who then took a sample. The figure hesitated, "Wait, is this man alive? He has no pulse. I imagine he will not survive long on this planet. Besides, he isn't needed for the plan. I was only told to recover DNA from the one who bears motor oil." Soon after, the figure disappeared. Ahrganot slowly awoke with a terrible headache. His telepathic abilities were not working. Then, he looked up to the sky and could see the Batra and a few other cruisers take off leaving him behind on the planet Eska. He concluded that Tholker and Etah assumed him to be dead. Stuck on a torn apart, backwater world with not civlization and little resources, he spent the whole day looking for shelter and possible ways to heal his head injury. Three weeks later, Ahrganot managed to contact a nearby Senate ship which later picked him up. Surprsingly, Tholker and Etah were aboard. Etah dealt a punch which knocked him back at least twelve feet, "Don't you ever do that again! That was uncalled for and reckless." "Hey, now. I don't want you guys tearing up this ship more than what the Genodraco did to Eska," Tholker said. Ahrganot said, "He's right. So what sort of information did you gain from the Genodraco?" Tholker replied, "This is bad. Very bad actually. We were too late. The Kklxin appear to have reverse engineered Genodraco technology to clone themselves and build massive armies. The Eteno colony Elariun has been utterly ravaged from them. Now there's rumor of odd patterns of Kklxin attacks in the middle of Eteno territory." Ahrganot said, "Oh Kray. This does not sound well at all." Etah said, "It gets even worse. The Genodraco are involved with the Grox as well." Ahrganot said, "Really? How so?" Karnasaur Etah walked over to a nearby chair and asked for his family heirloom to be beamed over. next thing he knew, there it was: A gunpowder weapon dated to the Yetun era.He began cleaning it out. He found this distanced hi from bad memories when he had to surface them. "As you know, the Grox have been all but exterminated. However, a colleauge... an associate rather, of mine, was captured before they were eliminated. They seem to have implanted him and transformd him into a warped, twisted, reversed version of himself. The General Drakko was reporting directly to him. The General revealed, after several hours on the electric chair, that this..." Etah paused, looking for a word to use to describe the shell that remained of his squadmate. "This... thrall, this... monstrosity, this... abberration, has taken a particular and sole interest in me. The General, however, honestly does not know why. He was but a Knight in the game to run a few pawns while the King prepares his final strategy. The Kklixin, I believe are under his direct control, but at the same time, there are usually two Knights in a game. We have extinguished the threat of the General Drakko and his rook, the Occulus, but now, we aim for the other side of the-" "Etah, could you please end the whole chess game analogy. I don't play it and you lost me when the General became a knight." Tholker rang out. Etah, unfortunately, had finished cleaning the gun until the point he would just pollute the barrel with more cleaner. He sighed, and something about it troubled his teammates. Suddenly a Karnasaur entered the room. "Colonel Etah, sir. I have a message for you and your team. Kklixin attacks have momentarily stopped. Completely. For the past few hours actually." "Good. It seems our King has decided to pull his remaining troops back into safety. But why- Wait. Of course. He has just learned of the Drakko's failure. Takes time for news to spread, even faster than the speed of light, especially for someone on a secluded world. I get the feeling the enemy King thought to have the General's forces support him with the Occulus-" "But why? Kklixin clones are infinite-" Ahrganot said. "But not depletable. Cloning takes time, Ahrganot. Time the King needs. And without his other Knight, he cant continue his assault. We've unknowingly caused a ceasefire by removing half his standing forces. We deplete the other half-" "And the King is left open. We move in for the kill and-" Ahrganot continued "Checkmate. All we have to do is find the cloning facility. And destroy it. We leave him with no standing army, and no means to achieve whatever dark goals he has in mind. But for now, it seems that another mission awaits us. I've taken then liberty of uploading the briefing to your extra-net accounts. Lets see what we've got." Etah concluded. Category:Projects Category:GSSOC Category:Kklxin Story Arc